Love is the Truth of Our Being
For the dwelling place of the Word is Man: and its Truth is Love. Odes of Solomon 12:11
It is an indelible sign of our age, that the love which Christ made manifest is cooling off dramatically. To that end, it is no wonder that the Lord’s first grievance to the Churches — let those with ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches — was that they had left behind their first love.
This fundamental Truth, that God is Love — and that we, if we would claim we are in the likeness of God, would radiate the Light of this Love — is the foundation of the Law, and reiterated in Christ’s own articulation of the Two Great Commandments. In a profound way the apostle Paul spoke an elegant form of this by saying: “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way fulfill the Law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35
So we have the simple epitome of the story of God’s work in creation. It is a love story and we are the recipients of that love, and the participants in that story. In turn we are created to be radiators of that love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
As the Lord told me some years ago: “Just tell the story. Keep it simple. Do not add a word or take away a word. Just tell the story.”
The truth of the story begins with the witness of the apostle John.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have beheld, and our hands have touched, concerning the Word of life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:1-7
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has beheld God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has thoroughly unfolded Him. John 1:10-18
And that Grace and Glory was meant to be dwelling within us!! It is the Father’s will that we be glorified (cf. 1 Peter 1:11, as part of “the glories to follow”)
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:20
If anyone loves me he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23
And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. John 17:22-23
Readers might ask: why does this foundational teaching of Christ needs revisiting right now? It must be daily entered because the first concern for the churches in Revelation 2 cited above, is precisely that departure from love. And we see that everywhere as we look around our society, and even within the church at the wrangling over words and the debate over this strange and varied teaching and that.
Our eye needs be single, fixed on Christ Jesus and the love in which He called us. Then our body shall be full of light indeed.
And we cannot know the truth — Jesus is the Truth — if we do not abide in His word. That is obedience to the gospel, it is the lawfulness of keeping His commandments, His word, and living off of every word which proceeds from the mouth of God (Mt. 4:4, Deut. 8:3); and just to be clear: Jesus is the mouth of God. This truth of walking in Christ is the very being of Christ and it sets us free from slavery to sin and death.
This means we are under obligation to walk as Christ did. That is our expression of love, for it can never be mere lip service. (1 John 2:6)
All of this sums up the choice before us in this time of trial when sheep and goats are being separated, when the faithful conquer the image of the Beast within them. We can choose Love or lawlessness, love or rebellion against the King and His kingdom, love or death. By choosing obedience to the Gospel, we hasten the coming of the Kingdom, showing ourselves ready to inhabit the Life of the Aeons.
Praise the Holy One, for He has said:
Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm: for Love is as strong as death.” Song of Songs 8:6
And so let the thoughts of our heart and the actions of our arms be sealed in the loving thoughts and works of our Lord, that as we abide in Him, His thoughts and words and deeds may shine through our clay vessels. He is that treasure (2 Cor. 4:7) inside of us — Christ in you, the hope of Glory.
This cannot be pure poetry. It is the sublime truth of our deepest being. And it must be so that truth may flow from our lips like streams of living water, that our hearts may radiate the Spirit of Love, and that our mind may break and share the living bread of Heaven.
It is we who, like the One in whose image we are made, are meant to be the living bread and living water to the nations, as the anointed ones of the Anointed Son of God.
Now let our benediction be the glorious words of Ode 12, most likely a first century writing by someone who clearly must have known Christ quite intimately in Spirit if not also in flesh. Its divinely expressive poetry plucks the strings of our hearts.
He hath fulled me with words of truth; that I may speak the same;
And like the flow of waters flows truth from my mouth, and my lips show forth His fruit.
And He has caused His knowledge to abound in me, because the mouth of the Lord is the true Word, and the door of His light;
And the Most High hath given it to His words, which are the interpreters of His own beauty, and the repeaters of His praise, and the confessors of His counsel, and the heralds of His thought, and the chasteners of His servants.
For the swiftness of the Word is inexpressible, and like its expression is its swiftness and force;
And its course knows no limit. Never doth it fail, but it stands sure, and it knows not descent, nor the way of it.
For as its work is, so is its end: for it is light and the dawning of thought;
And by it the worlds talk one to the other; and in the Word there were those that were silent;
And from it came love and concord; and they spake one to the other whatever was theirs; and they were penetrated by the Word;
And they knew Him who made them, because they were in concord; for the mouth of the Most High spake to them; and His explanation ran by means of it;
For the dwelling place of the Word is Man: and its truth is love.
Blessed are they who by means thereof have understood everything, and have known the Lord in truth. Hallelujah.
This first century teaching is one of the most elegant distillations of the doctrine of Christ and the deep truth that All True Life is in Him. There is an emphasis on those who receive this Love and are penetrated by the Word. The Lord makes a home within them.
And these we come to realize are “His words,” those who become the multiplicity of logoi, the “little Christs” Luther would come to call them. For are not these the Elect, foreknown from the foundation of the world, those who are foreordained to the good works prepared for them? And we see their nature and commission upon reception of The Lord, the true Word. They are:
the interpreters of His own beauty, and the repeaters of His praise, and the confessors of His counsel, and the heralds of His thought, and the chasteners of His servants. Ode 12:4
And so we must be!
Such ones cannot be mere words in the terrestrial sense, but are communicated exressi0ns of the Divine Life of the Logos, and they give glory to God by reflecting His Glory as from a mirror, in Love, and knowledge, and Truth. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
And so may the Living Word dwell within all who will receive Him to abide within, and may such tabernacling together allow the words of Asaph the psalmist to be fulfilled:
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Psalm 50:2
This is the glory of God, seen through His people, the image of His Christ, firstborn in all things. May it be complete in these days and fulfill the promise to the Romans that all creation will revel in the revealing of the Sons of God. And may it shine in the darkness and dispel all the shadow of the old aeon that is passing. Amen